Can Gal Gadot outrun the worst reviews of her career? The Runner proves that even Wonder Woman can’t escape a disastrous script.
Overview
The Runner is not a good movie. In fact, it’s one of the worst-reviewed films of 2026. Directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) and starring Gal Gadot, this Prime Video action thriller currently holds a staggering 9% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 22 critic reviews. That puts it below Snow White and the Morbius memes—and yes, that’s saying something.
The film follows Maia Marten (Gadot), a London-based attorney whose diabetic son is kidnapped. To save him, she must follow a mysterious caller’s instructions and run across London to assassinate a key witness.
What sounds like a high-concept thriller on paper collapses under the weight of a predictable script, miscast lead, and style that desperately tries, and fails, to compensate.
Table of Contents
Running time: 84 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Streaming on: Prime Video (released September 2, 2026)
Who Should Watch This?
Let me be honest about who this film is for:
- Gal Gadot completists who want to see everything she’s ever made
- Hate-watchers who enjoy picking apart bad thrillers (and there’s plenty to pick apart here)
- Fans of so-bad-it’s-good cinema—one critic called it “exquisitely silly for the right kind of hate-watcher”
- Anyone curious about how a film with this director and star could go so wrong
Who should skip it: Pretty much everyone else. If you value coherent plotting, believable dialogue, or genuine suspense, give this one a pass.
Background: The Film That Could Have Been
Let me set the stage. The Runner was announced in November 2024, with Amazon MGM Studios developing the project. Kevin Macdonald, an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker who gave us One Day in September and the gripping The Last King of Scotland, was attached to direct. Gal Gadot, fresh off her Wonder Woman fame, was set to star. The premise was simple: a high-powered attorney must run across London to save her kidnapped son.
On paper, this looked promising. Macdonald’s documentary background suggested a gritty, realistic approach. Gadot had proven she could handle action. The “phone thriller” subgenre, think Phone Booth or Locke, has built-in tension.
Principal photography began on April 22, 2025, in London and wrapped around early July 2025. But production wasn’t smooth. The film made headlines for reasons beyond its plot: eight pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested for disrupting the Central London set.
The Metropolitan Police stated the demonstrations were “solely because an actress involved in the production is Israeli”. The protests reportedly left Gadot “scarred,” prompting her to consider departing London. In November 2025, all charges against the protesters were dropped.
This controversy added a layer of real-world tension to a film that desperately needed it on screen.
The Runner Plot Summary
Since you’re here for a proper analysis, let me walk you through exactly what happens in The Runner—and why it doesn’t work.
Maia Marten (Gal Gadot) is a high-powered prosecutor in London and a single mother to her diabetic son, Noah (Rory Wilmot). She’s preparing to appear in court for the trial of crime boss Tommy Boyd. On the morning of the trial, she drops Noah off at school and goes for her usual run.
Then the phone rings.
On the other end is an unnamed man (Damian Lewis, credited simply as “The Caller”) who works for Boyd. He informs Maia that he has kidnapped Noah and injected him with too much insulin, placing him in a diabetic coma. Maia has one hour to follow his instructions, or Noah will die.
The Caller has hacked her phone and is tracking her every move. She can’t call for help. She can’t tell anyone. She must run to the Excelsus Hotel, where key witness Radian Tafa is being held under police guard, and use a gun, found in Noah’s backpack, to kill him.
What follows is an 84-minute sprint across London. Maia runs through streets, jumps onto the London Underground, gets hit by a car, escapes an ambulance, loses her phone to a pickpocket, and confronts the thief with her gun—attracting police attention in the process. She hides in a church, re-establishes contact with the Caller, and confesses that she—not her mother—murdered her abusive father years ago.
She makes it to the hotel, shoots Tafa multiple times, and races to save Noah with a dose of glucagon.
Here’s the twist: Maia used a stranger’s phone on the Underground to text her colleague Ted (Alfred Enoch) and the police.The police gave her blanks. Tafa’s murder was faked with blood packs. When the Caller smugly confronts her in the lobby, she fires a blank at him, alerting police to his location.
He’s arrested. Boyd is convicted. Maia and Noah drive home, and she tosses her phone out the car window when an unknown number calls.
The Runner Analysis: Where It All Went Wrong
1. Direction and Cinematography
Kevin Macdonald is a talented filmmaker. His documentary work—One Day in September, Touching the Void, Whitney—demonstrates a keen eye for human drama under pressure. He brought his documentary instincts to The Runner, using hidden cameras and filming through real crowds in London. In theory, this should have given the film a gritty, immediate feel.
In practice, it’s a mess.
Macdonald tries to mask the film’s shortcomings with lens flares, crash zooms, and motion blur—a style that critics compared to Run Lola Run (1999). The problem? Run Lola Run had a coherent script and charismatic performances to back up its style. The Runner doesn’t.
One critic described the film as “a poor imitation of a Danny Boyle movie”. Another called it “an exercise in CrossFit filmmaking”. The visual flourishes feel desperate, like Macdonald is trying to distract us from the fact that we’re watching a woman jog and talk on the phone for an hour and a half.
That said, the two sequences where Maia outruns a train inject some genuine energy. They’re absurd, stylish, and momentarily exciting. But they’re not enough to save the film.
2. Acting Performances
This is where things get uncomfortable.
Gal Gadot is a movie star. She has presence, charisma, and the physicality for action. But she’s not a dramatic actress, and The Runner asks her to carry the entire film through emotional monologues delivered while running.
The New York Times review put it bluntly: Macdonald “masks Gadot’s actorly inadequacies” with style. ScreenRant noted that Gadot “is not an engaging enough deliverer of dialogue to bridge the gap”. She handles the action capably—the running, the jumping, the physical demands—but when the script asks her to convey fear, desperation, or guilt, the performance falls flat.
Damian Lewis as The Caller is the film’s saving grace. Lewis brings a chilling, calculating menace to his voice-only performance. One review called it a “strong villain turn”. Another compared him to Dennis Hopper in Speed. He’s the one element that almost works.
Alfred Enoch (Ted) and Rory Wilmot (Noah) are serviceable but forgettable. The supporting cast doesn’t have much to do.
3. Script and Dialogue
Mark Gibson’s screenplay is the film’s biggest problem.
The premise is promising: a woman must run across London to save her son, guided by a voice on the phone. But the execution is derivative and predictable. One critic called it “poorly written, derivative and predictable”. Another said the script “deflates the intended freneticism”.
The dialogue is didactic and on-the-nose. Maia and The Caller make snide comments about surveillance and screen addiction, but “they have nothing grander to say about either topic”. The script tries to be about modern paranoia—our dependency on phones, the surveillance state—but it never develops these themes beyond surface-level observations.
RogerEbert.com’s review was particularly harsh: the script “pays almost no attention to things like normal human behavior or even how modern technology really works. It’s insulting”.
4. Music and Sound Design
Tom Hodge composed the score. One critic described it as “percussive” and “mostly driven by bongoes”. That’s not a compliment. The music is relentless and pounding, trying to create urgency where the script fails to generate it.
The sound design does some heavy lifting. The phone calls, the ambient city noise, the Underground announcements—these elements create a sense of place. But they can’t compensate for a hollow core.
5. The Runner Themes and Messages
The Runner wants to be about something. Macdonald has said the film explores “technology’s chokehold on humans” and the “terrifying extent of this dependency”. The film shows us a world where everyone is staring at their phones, oblivious to the drama unfolding around them.
But the theme never goes deeper than that. Maia and The Caller make observations about surveillance and screens, but the film doesn’t commit to a real argument. It gestures at meaning without earning it.
There’s also a subtext about maternal sacrifice and guilt. Maia murdered her abusive father—a revelation that’s meant to complicate our sympathy for her. But it’s handled so clumsily that it feels like an afterthought.
6. Personal Insight: What The Runner Teaches Us About Modern Cinema
Here’s what struck me about The Runner—and why I think it matters beyond just being a bad movie.
We’re in an era of algorithmic filmmaking. Studios greenlight projects based on what worked before: a star, a high-concept premise, a streaming platform hungry for content. The Runner checks all the boxes: Gal Gadot (global recognition), Kevin Macdonald (prestige director), Prime Video (guaranteed distribution). But checking boxes isn’t the same as making art.
The film’s 9% Rotten Tomatoes score isn’t just a failure—it’s a signal. It tells us that audiences and critics are tired of movies that feel assembled by committee. We can spot a derivative script from a mile away. We notice when a director is trying to distract us with style rather than substance.
There’s also something here about the “phone thriller” subgenre. Phone Booth worked because it was simple and claustrophobic. Locke worked because Tom Hardy gave a masterclass in solitary performance. The Runner doesn’t work because it tries to be both a phone thriller and a city-spanning action film, and it fails at both.
And then there’s the Gadot factor. She’s a movie star, not an actress. That’s not a criticism—it’s a distinction. Movie stars have presence; actresses have range. Gadot’s Wonder Woman worked because the role didn’t require emotional depth. The Runner requires emotional depth, and she doesn’t have it. This isn’t about talent; it’s about casting. Put Gadot in the right role, and she’s magnetic. Put her in the wrong role, and the whole thing collapses.
Finally, the production controversy matters. The protests during filming added a layer of real-world tension that the film itself couldn’t generate. Eight arrests. A court order keeping protesters away. Gadot reportedly “scarred” by the experience. That’s a story more compelling than anything in the script. And it raises an uncomfortable question: when a film’s production is more dramatic than the film itself, what does that say about the project?
Comparison: Where The Runner Fits (and Fails)
Let me compare The Runner to films it desperately wants to be:
| Film | What It Does Well | What The Runner Does Wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Run Lola Run (1999) | Stylish, kinetic, thematically rich | Style without substance; shallow themes |
| Phone Booth (2002) | Claustrophobic, tense, great lead performance | Too much running; miscast lead |
| Speed (1994) | Clear stakes, charismatic leads, genuine suspense | Unclear stakes; wooden dialogue; no suspense |
| Locke (2013) | Minimalist, gripping, tour-de-force performance | Too much noise; not enough emotional core |
Macdonald himself compared the film to Run Lola Run in terms of style. But Run Lola Run had a punk energy and a philosophical undercurrent. The Runner has bongo drums and lens flares.
What sets The Runner apart from these films is its sheer incompetence. It’s not just mediocre—it’s insulting in places. The plot holes, the illogical character behavior, the clunky dialogue—these aren’t minor flaws. They’re fundamental failures.
Critical Reception
The numbers are brutal:
- Rotten Tomatoes: 9% (22 reviews)
- Metacritic: 40/100 (11 reviews)
- Average RT rating: 3.9/10
Here’s a sampling of what critics said:
“The only exercise you’ll get is in your mind running through the ways it makes no sense.” — Brian Tallerico, USA Today
“Flashy, insistent, and altogether pretentious, it’s a fine example of migraine cinema.” — Nick Schager, The Daily Beast
“The Runner isn’t much of a thriller. It isn’t much of a movie.” — William Bibbiani, The Wrap
“It’s completely ineffective when it comes to its intentions, but its failures are easy to enjoy.” — The A.V. Club
The few positive reviews came from Debbie Lynn Elias (Behind the Lens) and Jordan Mintzer (The Hollywood Reporter) Elias called it “visceral, intelligent and cinematically exhilarating”. Mintzer wrote that it “keeps a fast enough pace that we don’t wind up asking too many questions”.
Audience Reception
As of publication, there’s no verified audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. But early reactions on social media suggest the film isn’t winning over viewers either. The 84-minute runtimeis mercifully short, but even that feels too long when the script is this bad.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Damian Lewis delivers a genuinely chilling voice performance
- The two train sequences are visually exciting, if absurd
- 84-minute runtime means it doesn’t overstay its welcome
- London locations look great (the city is the film’s best character)
- Some moments are so bad they’re entertaining—perfect for hate-watching
Cons
- Gal Gadot is miscast—she can’t carry the emotional weight
- Derivative, predictable script that offers no surprises
- Pretentious dialogue that gestures at depth without earning it
- Over-reliance on style (lens flares, crash zooms) to mask flaws
- Plot holes that insult the audience’s intelligence
- Bongo-heavy score that’s more annoying than thrilling
- Themes (surveillance, technology) are never developed
Conclusion
The Runner is a textbook case of what happens when a high-concept premise, a movie star, and a respected director come together without a good script. It’s 84 minutes of wasted potential—a film that thinks it’s saying something about modern life but can barely string together a coherent sentence.
Is it worth watching? Only if you’re curious about how a film with this pedigree could go so wrong. For hate-watchers, there’s some fun to be had. For everyone else, there are better thrillers out there—including the ones The Runner is trying to imitate.
My recommendation: Skip it. Watch Run Lola Run or Phone Booth instead. They do everything The Runner tries to do, and they do it better.
Rating
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5)
The Runner is a misfire on almost every level. It’s not aggressively terrible—it’s just aggressively mediocre, which might be worse.
Recommended For
- Gal Gadot fans who want to see everything she’s done
- Hate-watchers who enjoy dissecting bad movies
- Students of film studying what not to do in a thriller
- Anyone curious about the year’s biggest critical flop
